What Is Business and Industrial Marketing?
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What Is Business And Industrial Marketing? Ernest F Cooke There is no single, clear, specific definition of business definition of industrial marketing. We will also or industrial marketing. Existing definitions are incon• examine the differences between industrial and sistent and there has been a claim that there is no differ• consumer marketing and present a rationale for ence between industrial marketing and consumer mar• the position that industrial marketing, despite 1 keting. It seems appropriate for the inaugural issue of some similarities, is significantly different from a journal on business and industrial marketing to ex• consumer marketing and therefore is properly amine this problem and to attempt to clear up the treated as a separate subject. confusion. DEFINITIONS INTRODUCTION There are two points that need to be made It is hard to find a definition of business or in• about the term "industrial marketing": dustrial marketing, and those few that exist are not consistent with one another. In addition, it is 1. It is a misnomer in that the word "industri• claimed that there is no significant difference be• al" implies industry only, whereas, indus• tween consumer marketing and industrial mar• trial marketing actually has come to mean keting and that it is a mistake to differentiate be• more than just marketing to industry. tween them. This article examines the issues.2 First let's examine the various definitions per• 2. Through common usage, consumer mar• taining to industrial marketing and the nature of keting and industrial marketing have come the problem of defining industrial marketing. to cover the entire marketing universe and Then we can attempt to present a simple, concise are considered mutually exclusive. Ernest F. Cooke, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University, is a Professor of Marketing and holds the Chair in Sales, en• dowed by Sales and Marketing Executives of Memphis, in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at Memphis State University. Th author wishes to thank James Richard Shannon for his assistance in preparing this article. VOL. 1 No. 1 FALL 1986 9 THE JOURNAL OF BUSINESS AND INDUSTRIAL MARKETING This second point does not mean that there are and contradictions in existing definitions of in• not other types of marketing. For example, do• dustrial marketing. However, they do not show mestic and international marketing also cover the all of the problems. Some other discrepancies in• entire marketing universe and are also considered clude the questions of inclusion or exclusion of mutually exclusive, and agricultural marketing or agricultural markets and the middlemen in con• nonprofit marketing can be consumer or industri• sumer markets. Before a single definition can be al, international or domestic. developed, guidelines distinguishing industrial marketing from consumer marketing must be Defining industrial marketing usually starts established. with one of three approaches: (l)the product defi• nition approach, (2)the market definition ap• proach, or (3)the marketing activity approach. VARIOUS APPROACHES It has been suggested that the most useful defi• The first view is the product definition approach. nition of industrial marketing should focus first This focuses upon the industrial product and how on the industrial customer and then on the indus• to differentiate an industrial product from a con• trial product. The problem with this view is that sumer product. This is the easier of the three ap• the greatest disparity in defining industrial mar• proaches; there is more agreement on what con• keting comes in defining industrial markets (the stitutes an industrial product. Industrial goods industrial customer). One definition of industrial are defined in terms of the product characteristics marketing is "the marketing of goods or services or uses. The definition from the AMA is, "Indus• to commercial enterprises, governments, and trial Goods-goods which are destined to be sold other non-profit institutions for resale to other in• primarily for use in producing other goods or ren• dustrial consumers or for use in the goods and ser• dering services as contrasted with goods destined vices that they, in turn, produce." This follows the to be sold primarily to the ultimate consumer. suggestion of concentrating first on the They include equipment (installed and accesso• customer.1 ry), component parts, maintenance, repair, and operating supplies, raw materials, and fabricating Another definition says "industrial marketing is materials." The complication inherent in this clas• the marketing of goods and services to industrial sification system is that many products can be ei• customers for use in the production of goods, for ther industrial or consumer, depending on how use in the operations of businesses themselves, they are used. This is why the market definition and for use by non-political institutions."5 This comes into consideration. differs in two ways from the first definition. It concentrates on product rather than market and it excludes governments (nonpolitical) while the CHARACTERISTICS OF INDUSTRIAL MARKETING first specifically includes political institutions A discussion of industrial markets must begin (governments). with a look at some of the characteristics that dis• tinguish them from consumer markets. First, and Still another author defines industrial market• most important, the demand in industrial markets ing as "human activities directed toward satisfying is derived. No industrial purchase would be made wants and needs of professional buyers and other if it weren't for some consumer demand. All in• individuals influencing purchases in commercial, dustrial sales are made to companies or institu• institutional, and governmental organizations tions that sell to other companies or institutions 3 through the exchange process." This definition who will, somewhere down the line, provide a concentrates on the marketing aspect of industri• product or service to ultimate consumers. This is al marketing, the third outlook. especially apparent with companies that sell goods that become part of the final consumer product Even more marketing oriented than the last (raw material, component parts) or that are used definition is the definition by the authors of a in producing the consumer product (equipment, basic textbook in marketing. They say "industrial machine maintenance, and repair parts and ser• marketing is a set of activities directed toward fa• vices). It is beyond the scope of this paper to dis• cilitating and expediting exchange involving cus• cuss the significance of derived demand to eco• tomers in industrial markets and industrial 4 nomic analysis, forecasting, and marketing products." This deals exclusively with marketing, strategy. depending on further definitions to explain in• dustrial markets and industrial products. Derived demand is an important and unique as• These four examples show the discrepancies pect of the difference between industrial markets 10 WHAT IS BUSINESS AND INDUSTRIAL MARKETING? and consumer markets. However, there are five similar), a customer of the buyer will generally get other characteristics which help differentiate be• the order. tween the two markets: Stable Buying Relations (Long-Term Relationships). Concentrated Markets. The consumer market Once a buying relationship is established in indus• consists of somewhere over 200 million people. trial purchasing, it is very difficult for outside The industrial market, on the other hand, is limit• sources to break into the purchase chain. A buyer ed to slightly over 10 million (including 2 million usually establishes more than one supplier for a farmers). Also the 80/20 principal applies to in• frequently used product, helping to ensure a dustrial markets. In 1972 the top 500 of the smooth, adequate supply, maintain price competi• 300,000 manufacturers (1/6 of 1%) accounted tion (to prevent a drastic price increase), and pre• for 67% of all industrial output. In farming, less vent overdependence, but once two or three than 10% of the farmers produce over 50% of the sources have been established it is difficult for a output. new supplier to establish a relationship. In some Industrial markets are also concentrated geo• situations sellers and buyers set up joint graphically. Four of the top five tire manufactur• ventures. ers are headquartered in Akron, Ohio. The big three auto makers are all based in Detroit, and The two-way flow of information, engineering, Milwaukee and St. Louis are major beer produc• and innovation is very pronounced in industrial ers. Steel and coal are concentrated in the north• marketing, where there are frequently long east, particularly Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West chains of buyer-seller relationships with many Virginia. branches. A simplified example would be steel manufacturer to turbine blade manufacturer to Rational Buying Motives. Factors that influence jet engine manufacturer to airframe manufactur• an industrial purchase are, in general, more ra• er to commercial airline. One of the numerous tional than those affecting consumer purchases. branches would be electric motor and control This does not mean that industrial marketing is manufacturer to forging press manufacturer to totally rational, only more rational. Part of this is turbine blade manufacturer. In these long chains due to organizational constraints. Profit maximi• the individual firm, when acting as a buyer, fre• zation or cost minimization are usually a major quently is an instigator rather than